


Men amongst gods

by bookaddict_99



Category: Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Demigods, Light Angst, May Become a Series, One shot?, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27376993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookaddict_99/pseuds/bookaddict_99
Summary: How do you kill a God?Hera sighs, ‘You rob them of love and loyalty. They will be alone and unhappy, and eternity will seem like a punishment, but it is not death.’How do you kill a God?Zeus declares, rather confidently, ‘You deny them their power. Poseidon nods his head in agreement. ‘They will be weak and defeated, perhaps even chopped up into pieces, but it is not death.’How do you kill a God?Apollo closes his eyes. ‘You strip them of their senses. Their eyes, and they cease to see. Their ears, and they are rendered silent. They will be in the dark, conscious and cut off for millennium, but it is not death.’How do you kill a God?Hades whispers, though still his voice carries, ‘With another God. An immortal for an immortal. Era for an Era. A celestial being to strip another’s soul. He pauses, the rest are silent. ‘A God for a God.’How do you kill a God?Megan starts wondering how you kill a god.
Kudos: 10





	Men amongst gods

“How do you kill a God?”

The question was innocent. Something asked in the midst of the induction. It had brought laughter amongst the gods present. It was laughable really. A stupid question. You don’t kill a God they had answered. You can’t kill Justice and Chaos, War and Love. You can’t kill that which makes the world work. So the question had been ignored. 

You can’t kill that which is immortal.

The party had continued. Drinks being exchanged as gods introduced their protegees. Walking them around like trophies and prizes they had won. There weren’t a lot of them present but it only took her but a second to realize that which was happening. The gods were not different from mortals, at least not as much as they wished to be. No matter what they said or hoped, the gods had become predictable. She wasn’t sure what immortality did to previous humans but there was no mistaking what her eyes told her. The gods had become bored and in their search for entertainment had become the rocks that sunk to the bottom of the lake and refused to move. Refused to change. 

She guessed that in the end immortality was just a word. Immortality did not make these gods special. It did not make them wise. She could see it in their eyes. See the same emotions that motivated the people around her. The gods were as human as the mortals they ruled. 

The gods around her were not great. And they disgusted her. 

*******

“How do you kill a God?” she asked Kaldur. The young god only looked at her in confusion. 

They sat together in a small bench near the back of the room. It was custom for all gods to attend despite the obvious holes she could spot in the crowd. As was expected, the older gods sat towards the front where their input could be more easily heard and the newest ones toward the back.

In the beginning she had sat anxiously. Listening attentively to every detail and proceeding of the event. Now, she half listens as one of the older gods tries another minor god. It had become a common occurrence in the following weeks. More and more minor gods disrupting the hierarchy. They wanted a change the older gods had been unwilling to give. She had lost count how many had been executed.

The courts tended to be long. Longer than she thought possible and while time no longer had an impact on her she wished to do more with the present. 

“You can’t,” he whispered back. “You can strip them of everything they love and that would be a death but you can’t kill a god.”

“There has to be a way,” she replied looking at the dark skinned man next to her.

And Kaldur understood in that moment all that which she denied herself from saying. Kaldur was the god of sacrifices. Used to lowering his head and allowing others to take the prizes always meant for him. Used to being the last one to be recognized-considered. Kaldur was used to being selfless.

“We’ll find a way.” Maybe it was time he was selfish for once.

*******

“My name is Conner,” he had said, blue eyes sparkling for the first time. “God of Castaways, you?”

“Megan, goddess of pain,” she replied smiling at the young god before her. She dimly remembered him from the induction. A prior demigod who had achieved more than other thought possible.

“Why are you the goddess of pain?” he had asked.

“Because I carry the burden of all those who can’t. I carry the burden of your castaways.”

“Then that would make you my goddess,” he replied, the beginnings of a smirk threatening to overwhelm him. 

“Not yet,” she answered grinning.

*******

“How do you kill a God?” she asked the god of thieves. The young boy had just laughed. Crouched above her in a tree.

He was young. Younger than any other god she had seen. His legs dangling from the branch he sat on as they looked around the park.

She hated interacting with him. As a goddess of pain there was no mistaking the pain he felt. It was a constant presence that coated him and left her aching and exhausted the next day. He laughed too much and joked too often but she had found that humour was just a tool to mask it. 

“I don’t know,” he replied, “I guess you could take away their senses. Gods are like humans in that sense. Take away that which lets you live and you find you can’t really live. You only leave the shell behind, an immortal’s death.”

“What if you could kill a God?” she asked, ignoring the shrieks from the children in the park as they kicked a ball around.

“I believe the question is, what would you do once you’ve killed a God?”

*******

“How do you kill a God?” she asked Conner on one of their calm nights. Sitting under a bus stop looking at the mortals around them. Her fingers carding through his black hair as he napped in her lap.

“You take away their power. Take away that which makes them who they are. It’s not a real death but a death nonetheless,” he replied looking at a drunken man stumbling from the alley.

“I don’t mean that,” she murmured, his head pillowed by her lap.

“I know.”

*******

“How  _ do _ you kill a God?” Artemis asked her. The goddess of traitors and betrayal looking at her with mischief.

Megan could only watch wide eyed as the blond beauty pulled a chair and invited herself to Megan’s table. The other mortals quickly looking away at the presence of the two goddesses. 

It was no secret the two goddesses did not get along. An unfortunate situation had left both of them bitter and with no intention of backing down. She had done everything in her power to steer clear of her and yet here she was, Artemis Crock wilingly seeking her out.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please,” she snorted. “I am the goddess of traitors and betrayal. You think that applies only to mortals? So tell me, how do you intend to kill the gods?”

They stared at each other. Neither willing to back down or concede to the other’s term. And then Artemis did something she never expected. She bit her lip and looked away. There was no disguising the apology in her eyes. 

“I don’t know,” Megan conceded, despair leaking into her tone. Artemis only looked at her in surprise before smirking and stealing Megan’s cup. Taking pleasure in drinking her coffee. “Would you like to help me look?”

*******

“How do you kill a God?” she asked Wally, their jobs often mixing due to the nature of their duties. Pain and last words seemed to call to one another She enjoyed talking to him, enjoyed the silly attitude hiding the powerful god underneath.

“I don’t know. Do you?”

“I’ve tried looking for an answer, but I’m starting to lose hope,” she said. Looking at the young woman as she shrieked while giving birth. 

In this instance they were both invisible. The mortals running around between them desperately trying to help the dying woman and her unborn child. In here, they were only the personification of their duties.

“Don’t,” Wally responded. “I am the god of last words, and I have heard the gods say theirs.”

*******

_ How do you kill a God? _

There were various types of deaths in the world. A psychological death, emotional death, spiritual death, a physical death. Death only meant the ending to something and it was not necessarily direct.

How do you kill that which is immortal? Gods who have reigned for thousands of years and achieved all they have achieved. For these were powerful beings, brought forth from the original Gods whom granted them their power. Gods with enough mercy to grant mortals a wish for immortality. Gods who believed they were more. 

False Gods. 

Megan thought they were arrogant. Powerful beings who flaunted their power in the face of others and laughed at the mortals beneath them. They were unworthy Gods. Unworthy of their power and the mortals beneath who worshiped them.

Nobody deserved these gods. It's why they did what had to be done. It's why Artemis lingered in the shadows following those useful. Why Megan followed Kaldur and Conner. Sensing the pain of those they tried to protect. It's why Dick remained close to the false gods. The charismatic god of thieves gaining their trust. It was Wally listening to the last words of those around them. Finding the unworthy gods. It's how they managed to achieve their ends.

Because amongst the chaos and destruction they stood. Artemis smirking at those who had deemed her unworthy. Wally listening to the last words they whispered grinning at their disbelief that he had amounted to something. It was Kaldur standing tall after years of being pushed down. Conner by her side now recognized and not castaway. It was her. The bodies of previous gods littering the floor and buried under the collapsing buildings while she grinned.

“How do you kill a God?” she asked again.

_ You replace it. _


End file.
